The government of Gujarat has today asked the union government to release a Compensatory Afforestation Management Fund (CAMPA) at the earliest.
In a meeting with the union minister for environment and forest, Jairam Ramesh the state minister for forest & environment Mangubhai Patel requested him to solve all the important issues of Gujarat, pending in the union ministry.
In the meeting held today, the Gujarat minister urged Ramesh for an early release of the Compensatory Afforestation Management Fund (CAMPA).
Ramesh assured the state minister to personally look into all the issues and to sort them out at the earliest.
The state government has a total provision of Rs 485 crore for compensatory funds parked with Centre.This includes Rs 132.63 crore towards compensatory afforestation and Rs 349.72 crore towards net present value.
Patel urged Ramesh that ad hoc CAMPA has been released so far by the central government in two installments for the state valuing Rs 24.96 crore and Rs 29.16 crore, totalling Rs 54.12 crore, which is utterly inadequate.
Patel also requested to release funds for ‘State Forest Development Agency’ and the ‘Greening India Programme’ schemes. He further urged the minister that central government to approve Rs 600 crore for constructing ring road around Gir Lion Sanctuary for protection and conservation of the lions.
A request for establishment of a National level Bio-diversity Institute in Jamnagar or Kutch was also made during the meeting with the Environment Minister.
